


be the light that helps others see

by ace_corvid



Series: Halloween Countdown Ficfest 2020 [8]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and the Signal (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily (DCU) Feels, Darkness, Domestic Fluff, Duke Thomas-centric, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Movie Night, Prompt Fic, TDC Unlucky Thirteen 2020, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trans Tim Drake, copious pop culture references, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27214525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ace_corvid/pseuds/ace_corvid
Summary: Duke didn't really know what to expect from movie nights with the Bats.He could only assume they approached this with the same determined intensity as they approached everything else. They were all so extra it was like their gauge for normal was completely broke. He wasn't really prepared for this.And yet here he was. Surrounded.(Alternatively; Batkid's have a movie night.)
Relationships: Batfamily Members & Duke Thomas, Everyone really - Relationship, Tim Drake & Duke Thomas
Series: Halloween Countdown Ficfest 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978783
Comments: 22
Kudos: 218
Collections: TDC's Unlucky Thirteen





	be the light that helps others see

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coravao](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coravao/gifts).



> Prompt: **Darkness** / Hunters
> 
> Day 8!! The most important day of all!! because it's October 26th, which means HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARK!! you're the light of my life, so i figured I'd use the darkness prompt to bring u some light to yours. I hope you enjoy it! you know full well I was originally planning angst for the prompt, so I hope it's worth it. You're an excellent friend and i'm thankful everyday I get to have you in my life!! Love you!!
> 
> title: Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Duke didn't really know what to expect from movie nights with the Bats.

He could only assume they approached this with the same determined intensity as they approached everything else. They were all so extra it was like their gauge for normal was completely broke. He wasn't really prepared for this.

And yet here he was. Surrounded.

Originally, it was meant to be just Tim and Duke, maybe Jason if his stakeout finished on schedule. A nice, cosy little night in after a short patrol. Just in Tim's apartment, not in the Manor's quite frankly intimidating entertainment room. But really, once the others caught wind of it, that was never going to last.

Cass invited herself first, which they were never going to say no to really, not that they could if they wanted to. She was kind of everyone's favourite, and those were just the breaks. Who were they to refuse their supreme overlord?

Then _Dick_ heard about it and bemoaned about being left out for the entirety of breakfast, with a shit eating grin on his face. He knew what he was doing, and he knew _they_ knew what he was doing. That didn't, however, mean it didn't work. When big brother guilted you, you broke. Or at least, when Alfred made pointed coughs at you, you let Dick pretend he won, anyway.

Since Dick was coming, Damian was coming, whether the boy liked it or not. That was just a given.

Then Stephanie hadn't even let them _know_ she was coming. She just crashed it, and had the audacity to act surprised that the others were there. Like she'd been planning to bust in and join them all along. Which, to be fair, she probably had been.

By the time Jason crawled in through the window to join them, _like they'd actually planned_ , everyone was bundled up in Tim's living room. He took one look at the others and a deep breath before promptly attempting to climb out of the window again. Dick just rolled his eyes, hooked him by the neck of his trench coat, and dragged him back in. Jason landed on the floor in a graceless heap.

“Get up loser.” He offered him a hand. “We're watching Mean Girls.”

Jason looked up at Dick, clearly debating whether or not to continue lying there just to spite him, before he lean forward to take his hand. With little fanfare, Jason dragged Dick forward, placed a boot to his stomach, and promptly flipped him over. Dick easily landed in a roll, not even looking ruffled, and Jason got up himself.

“ _Not_ in the apartment.” Tim said, eyeing them distastefully.

“It's what you deserve,” Jason spat, with no heat to the words. “You said it'd just be us three. You _didn't_ say I'd have to watch _Mean Girls_.”

Duke frowned. “We're not watching Mean Girls. We never agreed on that.”

“And also, you say that like we invited them. Any of them.” Tim replied dryly. Because none of the others have any shame, they all laugh at him, because his suffering is funny to them.

“ _Can_ we watch mean girls?” Dick asked, clearly trying to start something, because he's not even half the angel everyone thinks he is.

Jason immediately launches into ranting, which Dick takes silently with a smug look on his stupid face. Stephanie quickly picks up on the trail, snapping back with whatever movie she wanted to watch. Something about Pride and Prejudice and Legally Blonde. Tim gave Dick a distrustful look as the man in question sauntered over to the couch beside them.

“Have you taken your binder off?” Dick poked Tim's side, who recoiled from him with a hiss.

“Yeah.” He lied in response, like a lying liar who lies.

“Get it off Tim. Now.” Dick said, letting some sternness leak into his voice. Grumbling, Tim got up.

“At least give me your hoodie then.” Tim made a grabby motion at him. Dick raised an eyebrow. The hoodie in question, light blue with stars on it, would definitely swallow Tim whole. Dick tried to communicate with his eyes that it would bury him.

Tim's eyes said he knew. That was what he _wanted._

So Dick gave him the hoodie, naturally, and Tim went off to get changed.

“Both of you have awful taste.” Damian commented idly, watching Jason and Steph argue with little to no interest. Both of them ignored him and carried on bickering.

They were still arguing by the time Tim came back.

“Fools.” Duke shook his head. “Shouldn't me and Tim be choosing the movie here. Considering this is our night you all jumped on, you leeches?”

“It's not my fault Pacific Rim reigns supreme, Duke.” Jason shrugged inelegantly.

“I thought you wanted to watch Pride and Prejudice.”

“That was like 5 minutes ago, keep up.”

“Pacific Rim is a good movie.” Dick said happily from where he was lounged over an armchair in a way that could not possibly be comfortable.

“Pacific Rim is adequate.” Damian added.

“Yes.” Cassandra added, her hands too full of a huge mug of hot chocolate to sign.

“I'm not losing this fucking argument.” Steph crossed her arms. “But Pacific Rims does kinda slap.”

“Last I checked, this wasn't a democracy.” Duke said incredulously. “This is our movie night, we get to pick the movie.”

Tim nodded. “I want to watch Jaws.” He replied sagely.

“Shut up Tim, no one asked you.” Duke smirked mischievously.

“Just pick a movie already, Lalonde.” Tim heckled from where Stephanie had just sat on him on the couch. Tim had started calling him Lalonde when they'd both found out the other had read Homestuck, and Tim had found it really funny how similar his powers were to Rose's. It was the worst. Duke couldn't even retaliate. He had 20 different revenge schemes in the work to pay him back already.

“Stop outing me as a Homestuck in front of people who respect me.” Duke shot back, grabbing the remote and scrolling to find the movie he was looking for.

“I'm outing _myself_ too, yknow.”

“Yeah, but no one respected you to begin with.”

Tim gasped, feigning hurt. “Lies. Lies and slander.”

“No it's not.” Stephanie patted his cheek as she got off his lap and blew him a kiss, before going to sit with Cass. Tim just stuck his tongue out at her.

“Ok, children settle down.”

“I wanted to watch Jaws.” Tim complained, pouting.

“Sucks to suck, I guess.” Duke shrugged, giving up all pretences of normal human boundaries and just collapsing onto Tim's shoulder. “We're watching Space Odyssey.”

“I'm sorry Duke. I'm afraid I can't do that.” Tim said seriously, and Duke considered punching him for just a second, but he couldn't be bothered getting up. Instead, he was content to bask in the ambiance of his families idle chatter as they waited for the movie to start, nestled into the thick cotton of Dick's hoodie that was burying Tim and covered in blankets.

Just as Dick got the film up on Netflix, everything went dark.

The power had gone out. It was pitch black; no one could see what was in front of them. Suddenly, everything around them was an unknown. Anything could be going on, but they would have no idea.

There was immediate panic.

Dick cursed. “Who would've cut power to the city?”

“Surely we would have caught something like that.” Stephanie said, the sound of her scrambling about blindly echoing through the apartment. What she was looking for, Duke couldn't say.

“Obviously we didn't.” Damian sneered, but his voice his tense. There's no venom in it.

“Guys, calm down.” Tim haplessly tried to get control of the situation, but all of them ignored it.

“ _Calm down_?” Jason snapped. “No one can see and someone's probably just cut the power to the city, Tim. We need to be out there.”

For a bunch of detectives, they were all a bunch of morons.

“Hey.” Duke tried to get their attention. “ _Hey!_ ”

The apartment goes quiet as everyone realises Duke's eyes are glowing. He is the only light source in the room, and their eyes cannot help but be drawn to him.

“Are you all forgetting something?” Duke raised an eyebrow.

A beat of silence rang through the room.

“It's possible we might have.” Dick shrugged from somewhere over near the TV.

“I could never forget you're the _light_ of my life Duke.” Tim smiled.

“Feel like helping us out?” Dick pushed Tim off the touch as he said it.

Duke grinned as the room burst into dancing light. Not of them barring Stephanie flinch as Duke practically explodes into a fairy land of dancing golds, spreading light throughout the room. It's beautiful. It's resplendent. Using his powers never gets old.

“Thanks.” Tim nudges him, voice warm, having scrambled up off the floor.

Duke _glows_.

“Hey.” Cass said, her voice cutting through the silence like a knife. “Check your phones.”

Jason was the first to get his phone out and check. “It's from O.” He sighed. “There's nothing wrong. It's literally just a power cut. Nothing else is going on, there's nothing to worry about. B's having a quiet night out there.”

“Just a power cut?” Tim asked sceptically. “Is Gotham _allowed_ to have normal problems like that?”

“Don't be inane, Drake.” The words are harsh, but the relief in Damian's voice is clear. Tim opens his mouth to snap back but Dick put a hand over his mouth pretty much immediately. This wasn't their first rodeo.

“So what do we do now?” Stephanie pushed at Damian's face to shut him up too as she began to speak. “Usually I'd say light some candles and pull out a board game but we're uh. We're not exactly in the dark any more.”

“And we have our phones.” Tim laughed. “As much as I love a good game of Cluedo, we can just get the movie up on there.”

“I'd kick your ass at Cluedo.” Jason grumbled quietly, which most of them ignored, because it simply wasn't true. It was tried and tested. Tim won nearly every time.

“We'd have to sit quite close for all seven of us to be able to see the movie on a phone.” Dick had a wicked grin on his face. Cass was absolutely beaming. Tim's face dropped as he realised what that meant. He shook his head, backing away and raising his arms to a surrender.

“I take it back.” He said simply, but it was too late. He was already in Dick's arms. He didn't bother fighting it. He just let it happen. There was no escape for him any more.

“I'm not cuddling any of you.” Jason shook his head, as he started backing away too, but he wasn't going to escape now. None of them were.

“Neither am I.” Damian stomped his foot, but his fate was just as sealed as Jason's.

“C'mon.” Dick smiled. “We're a group of strapping young vigilantes. Surely we can whip up a blanket fort worth watching this movie in.”

“You just want a cuddle pile.” Tim narrowed his eyes.

“I never said I didn't have ulterior motives.” Dick winked.

By the time the power came back on, they had no intention of moving, really.

**Author's Note:**

> duke thomas deserves the world and one of these days im gonna give it to him  
> HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARK!!!!!!! <3
> 
> you can find me at:  
> Tumblr: ace-corvid.tumblr.com  
> Twitter: twitter.com/ace_corvid  
> come yell at me!
> 
> thank you so much for reading, see you next time! And if you enjoyed this, a comment would really make my day!


End file.
